New Years
by Clover Lass
Summary: Aradia and Vriska have a heart to heart on New Years. This is my first fanfic on this account, so I hope you enjoy.


** Hello. I'd like you all to read this, although it's likely you won't. Either way, this is my first story on this account, which will mostly be a lot of Homestuck Fanfics. All shippy, probably. And a lot of Vriska. Now I have to put a disclaimer somewhere, so here is fine. I obviously do not own the characters. A few warnings for the story. If your trigger is self harm, it's probably best to not read New Years. I also hope you don't mind my not so great writing skills, I can definitely improve a bit. Anyways.**

**READ THIS IMPORTANT BIT- I am at the moment at a boarding school of sorts, a residential program. I don't have internet access here. But every time I get a home visit, which is about every two weeks, I will try to upd8. This news is mainly for the second story I've created, because that one will need to be upd8ed regularly. This one is just a drabble. I am w8ing to post the second story. Please enjoy New Years!**

New Years

The cool metal blade ran across her arm, leaving trails of blood in its wake. Aradia let out the breath she had been holding as she watched the red liquid bead up. She ran her fingers across her new cuts, stinging just a little as it smeared. Some drops drip down her skin and onto the white bed sheets. She glances down and decides she'll wash it later. She counts the breaths she takes as she watches the cuts bleed. She sits alone on her bed with the razor in her hand, which she lets drop to the floor. It bounces once on its side before it clatters and goes still. Not thinking much, she glances at the drawn windows. It's four in the morning, January 1st. She can hear the hoots and hollers of the drunken teens on the streets, coming home from celebrating too hard. Her roommate was out there, somewhere, probably not coming home for another few hours. Aradia didn't bother cleaning up her mess right now.

A girl storms up the stairs to her shared apartment, huffy and mildly upset. Vriska hadn't enjoyed herself this New Years. She had been bar hopping mostly, every hour walking or taking a cab to a different part of town. It wasn't the safest idea so late at night with so many drunks out, as well as seeing how she had gone alone. She hadn't really thought about it and hadn't really cared. She couldn't think of a friend that would want her around, and they all had plans anyways. So what was the point? Mildly annoyed, she reaches into her bag and fishes out her apartment keys, fumbling with the lock. A moment later she gets in and tosses her bag onto the coffee table.

"Hey, I'm hoooome," She calls out. It's very possible that her roommate is asleep, but she still felt the need to announce her presence.

"Welcome back." A call from her roommate's room.

"Welcome back." That's all Aradia could think to say. She hadn't expected Vriska home at this hour, but the prideful girl probably wouldn't enter her room anyways. She could be exhausted, which would explain why she came back. Either way, some friendly banter seemed necessary.

"Back so soon?"

"Yeaaa." Came a whine of a response. "I couldn't find enough to do, boring!"

Aradia hears Vriska's footsteps, and then the running water from the kitchen.

"Ugh, I think I'm dehydrated!"

She smiles. Vriska's complaining made pretending that nothing was wrong a bit easier. She had just begun to feel more calm about her situation when her door was flung open. Aradia jumps and her eyes widen when she sees Vriska standing in the doorway.

"Knock knock, all that. Hey, do you want to watch a…" Vriska trails off.

She trails off. Her eyes are focused on the red stains on the white, the thin bright lines on Aradia's arms. Her face is twisted, a look of concern and sadness, but she quickly fixes that by wiping her face of all emotion. Vriska's eyes trail up to Aradia's face, meeting her eye. Aradia stares right back at her, eyes unreadable.

'Aradia, what's going on." It isn't really a question, just pointing out the obvious.

"Nothing."

"Nothing." Was her hurried response, the easiest word to say, the easiest word to see through. Aradia hadn't thought anything through. Her face was calm but her heart was pounding, as she had never thought she'd get caught red handed, in the literal sense. While she felt constantly numb, the fear that she had hurt someone she considered a friend was upsetting. She watches Vriska's eyes, which dart from her marked up arms to the droplets on the sheets to the… She tightens her lips into a line as Vriska slowly approaches her bed, watching the girl get down on her knees and carefully pick up the bloodstained razor on the floor. Vriska stands back up, taking a step back.

"What's this."

She decides to answer matter of factly. "What used to be a part of a pencil sharpener."

Vriska winces at Aradia's answer before her face goes blank again. She can't really think of much to say as a response.

"…Did you even disinfect it?"

"I never thought about it."

She takes a breath. "I guess I've got to clean you up then, huh?"

Vriska leaves Aradia alone in her room for a moment as she goes to the bathroom, shuffling through cabinets until she finds what she wants. When she returns, Aradia is sitting cross legged on her bed, the same position she had left her in. In Vriska's arms is a damp towel, a roll of gauze, and medical tape. She drops these items on Aradia's night table, as Aradia shifts to the edge of her bed, showing no resistance to Vriska's care.

She didn't show any resistance to Vriska's care, seeing no use in struggling. She hadn't even thought that the girl could show this much kindness, but she supposed this was quite a different situation. Vriska picked up the damp towel and goes to Aradia's bedside, kneeling down to get on her height level.

"Arm." She demands. Aradia complies, giving Vriska her bloodied arm, which she holds more gingerly than Aradia thought was possible. She can hear Vriska's breath hitch as she looks over the damage, and Aradia feels a sudden pang of guilt. Vriska first takes each finger and wipes the blood off of them, the blood from when she had smeared her fingers across her arm. The girl then brings the cloth up to Aradia's arm and gently pats at the wounds, not rubbing them. It still stung a little and she winces, which causes Vriska to pause for a second before resuming her work.

She pauses for a second before resuming her work. She knew to pat gently. Rubbing would only cause the cuts to bleed more and cause more pain. Gently dabbing, the cloth took on a pinkish hue. Her lips tighten into a line before she lets out a breath. She had left the bloody razor by the bathroom sink to throw it out later, as leaving the object in the house was a bad idea. She mentally reminds herself to go back for it.

"God you're stupid. You could have at least cleaned up afterwards. " The words were meant in a kind manner, although it doesn't come out very well.

"I forgot."

"Dimwit, you don't just say 'I forgot', do you even know how serious this is?!" She had unconsciously raised her voice and she lowers her volume.

"Getting them infected is a problem."

She was only partially listening to Vriska's comments. Listening would probably induce more emotion, which was the opposite of what she wanted. She could feel the cool towel being dabbed on her arm repetitively and focused on that instead.

"Hey! Are you even listening?" Vriska's loud comment jolted her into looking up at the girl. She meets Vriska's eyes and immediately feels an unwanted rush of emotion.

Vriska keeps talking but she breaks eye contact to focus on cleaning Aradia's arm. The girl wipes up the remaining smears. Aradia observes Vriska's face. Is that concern?

"This is serious stuff Aradia. Why would you feel the need to do this?"

"It helps me forget about the day."

Vriska puts the now pink towel on the night table, picking up the gauze and unraveling it some.

"That's stupid, just go to bed and wait for the next day. So you can start it all over." This was her form of encouragement. She lifts Aradia's arm and carefully begins to wrap it. She did this almost unconsciously and with little effort, and she can feel Aradia's eyes on her. Once she finishes, she rips off some medical tape and tapes off the wrapping, not too tight yet not too loose. She gives Aradia a glare as the girl reaches to touch the wrapping. She smacks her hand.

"Ow!"

"No touching, the cuts are too fresh." Vriska lets go of Aradia's arm, which the girl lays in her lap.

"There are no more cuts anywhere else, right?"

Aradia, still very quiet, shakes her head.

"Yeah, I believe that. Fine." Vriska puts the medical tape back on the night stand while taking a glance at the clock. It's almost five in the morning. Vriska puffs her cheeks out and glances back at Aradia, who is observing her newly bandaged arm.

"How did you learn to do this so well?" She questions.

Aradia sees Vriska's hesitation when she answers. "That doesn't matter. What's more important right now is what you just did. What made you think that this would help anything?" She can hear Vriska's voice harden. "It's such a stupid thing to do! It's just temporary relief, it makes you feel guilty later, and it fucking scars you forever, literally and figuratively." Vriska inhales and Aradia knows she had just gone on a little rant.

"Just, the next time you feel like doing this to yourself, can you call me up instead?" Aradia's eyes snap up to look at Vriska, who looks determined.

"I don't know." She answers honestly.

"Fine, just, think about it." Vriska takes another breath before continuing. "It's stupid and cheesy and crap, but I'm there if you need me, you know?" She hadn't expected this sort of talk from someone like Vriska and it takes her a second to give a nod.

"Let's watch a movie. There's no point in going to bed this late. It's really just early morning." She stands up and walks to Aradia's door. "I'm picking though." Hearing Aradia's footsteps behind her, she goes into the main room and shuffles through movies in a small cabinet under the old tv, kneeling down. Usually she's have picked a scary movie, but with Aradia the way she is right now, Vriska pulls out a cheesy romantic comedy instead. Getting up, she places the movie in and picks up the remote. She walks back to the couch where Aradia is already seated, and plops down beside the girl. She grabs some blankets by her side and drapes them over herself, and Aradia tugs on them, stealing half. Once they both are cozy, Vriska turns on the movie and the tv screen flickers to life.

She gives Vriska and odd look with a small smile.

"You picked a romcom?" She sees Vriska's lips form a pout.

"Hey, I thought it would cheer you up some, be greatful." She grins and leans back into the couch. Not even halfway through the movie, both girls are making stupid commentary, Vriska excessively so.

"That's so dumb!" Vriska cries overdramatically as she throws her hands up. "Just becoming roommates doesn't make you automatically fall in love, god."

"Yeah, I can't say I disagree." She feels a little off. She was probably overthinking it, but she still felt like she needed to ask.

"Vriska, you knew how to wrap up my arm almost expertly, and you knew so much about, uh, cutting." Aradia can feel Vriska tense up beside her and she suddenly feels that her questions are very valid. "How did you know so much?"

She looks at Vriska's face, which seemed stony. Her response isn't vague.

"Well isn't it obvious?"

Vriska looks down, almost seeming to stare right through the blanket covering her lap.

"Isn't what obvious?" Was Aradia really this clueless? Or was the girl just waiting for a real response.

"Isn't it obvious how I know what I'm talking about? It isn't that hard to get, seriously." She had taken a somewhat bitter tone as her gaze returns to the stupid movie, not really watching. She can feel Aradia's eyes on her.

"Well it's kind of hard to tell if you just had a friend who did it, or if you were the friend." She can tell that Aradia knows how personal the question is when she adds on to her sentence. "You don't have to answer of course, it'd just be nice to know."

Vriska grins. "Dumbass, you know I don't have that many friends."

She stays quiet for a long while, looking at the tv without really watching. Aradia must have thought that Vriska didn't want to talk about it and didn't bring it up again. But really, Vriska had just been thinking. After a good few minutes, she reaches across Aradia and yanks the blankets off the both of them, leaving the girl to look at her with surprise.

She looked at Vriska with surprise. She watched as the girl dragged her legs onto the couch, sitting on her feet as she turns to face Aradia. She looked quite serious so Aradia did the same, ignoring the movie to face her friend.

"I'm only showing you this because you asked and you get it, okay?"

Aradia gave a curt nod. Vriska reaches down to the rim of her blue pencil skirt, what the girl had decided to wear on her night out. She slowly rolled up the skirt with some effort, exposing a lot of skin. Aradia's face reddens.

"Vriska, what are you-"

"Shut up," The girl snapped, "and just look, okay?"

She complied, with her face a faint pink. The color soon faded from her cheeks when she sees Vriska's upper legs. They had large and noticeable pink scars going from her knees and all the way up. Some were older, a faint white underneath the more recent. She breathes deeply, taking in a sad sight. She didn't understand what would make Vriska want to do this to herself, and she realized what Vriska must have felt when the girl had witnessed her in the same position Vriska had been in.

"And that," Vriska states, "Is why I don't go to the beach."

She heard Vriska's voice waver just slightly, and felt a wave of regret, feeling bad for making Vriska turn into this unusual mess she was right now. Not thinking, Aradia brought her hand on Vriska's knee and trailed her fingers upward, feeling the raised skin where the scars were.

Vriska feels her face grow hot as Aradia's fingers traced up her leg.

"Uh, no." She sees Aradia's eyes snap up to her own, and the girl quickly sits back, pulling her hand with her.

"Oh crap, sorry."

Vriska clears her throat. "Yeah, no problem." She unrolls her skirt back over her legs as she turns back to the tv screen. They had missed a good chunk of the movie.

"We should finish this."

She glances beside her and sees Aradia nod, and the girl shuffles up right beside Vriska, leaning heavily on her. She wasn't sure if this was compassion or pity or something else, but she decided she didn't mind. They finished the movie in this position and Vriska takes the remote and shuts off the tv. Aradia's breathing is tranquil and she seemed to be dozing off. Vriska gives her a rough nudge.

"Wakey wakey, it's like seven am."

Aradia gives a moan, only snuggling more into her.

"No point. Stay here." Aradia wraps her arms around Vriska's neck but winces as her injured arm presses against Vriska too tightly. Vriska gives a huff.

"God damn it Aradia, here."

She gently moves Aradia, pulling the girls' head to rest in her lap. Aradia lets out a sigh as she snuggles into her, getting comfortable. Vriska hesitates before talking.

"You'll tell me the next time you want to hurt yourself, right?"

Aradia tilts her head to look up at Vriska seriously. "Yeah, I think so." She waits a second. "Thanks."

Vriska heaves a breath and rolls her eyes. "Don't go all sappy on me."

"No, seriously. And the movie was pretty great too." Before Vriska can respond, Aradia pulls off of her and gently tugs the pencil skirt up. Vriska made no sound, but Aradia could practically see the pink in her cheeks. The other thing she could see were the organized lines on Vriska's upper legs. She runs her fingers up both legs again, carefully brushing past each scar. She can hear Vriska's breath hitch.

"I'm sorry." Aradia murmurs.

Vriska waits a moment before responding. "None of those were your fault."

She continues tracing up and down Vriska's leg. "I know, I'm just sorry you had to deal with things that made you want to do this."

A hand settles on top of hers, stopping it's movement. She looks up at Vriska questioningly. The girl looks down at her without her usual tough look.

"You know I hate sounding cheesy, so I'm only going to say this once. We both go through a lot of shit and we did some stupid things that we thought would help but only made stuff worse. But I actually seriously care about you, got it? So I'm going to try to stop, but you have to too."

She smiles up at Vriska. "You're right, that was the cheesiest thing you've ever said."

Vriska makes a pouting face and slaps Aradia's hand, the second time that night. "Shut up, I warned you!"

"Yeah."

"Yeah what?"

"Yeah, I'm going to try to stop with you."

"Okay, good. I'm throwing out your razor by the way."

"No problem." She motions at Vriska's exposed legs. That skirt is hitched up pretty high, just barely exposing more than was decent. "You might want to pull your skirt down again."

Vriska's eyes widen for a second. "Oh, shit." She hurriedly unbunches the fabric and covers the exposed areas.

She covers her upper legs, and Aradia puts her head back into her lap, looking up at Vriska.

"You're actually a really good person Vriska, even though you can be a real bitch." Aradia seems tired but serious.

She gives Aradia a tight lipped smile. "Gee thanks. You're a pretty great… are we friends?" She wonders aloud. Aradia's answer is very direct.

"No."

"Oh." Vriska frowns, narrowing her eyes at Aradia, who smiles. "And after all that shit I did for you, god-"

In the middle of her sentence she stops, as Aradia throws her hands behind Vriska's neck and pulls her down so they were face to 's eyes widen when she feels a soft pair of lips pressed against her own. It was very brief and she was released a moment later. Looking down at Aradia, she sees the girl growing a smile.

"I didn't know that doing that would shut you up."

She keeps her eyes on Aradia, unsure of what to say. Aradia's smile drops a bit. "I'm sorry, that was totally out of line, wasn't it."

"What? No." Aradia looks up at her, confused. Vriska continues talking, seeming flustered.

"I mean, that was fine really, not anything wrong, you know. It wasn't out of line, it's just a thing that you did and that I wasn't really actually expecting so I didn't say anything and I guess that bothered you, my fault because I should have said somethin-" She stops talking only when Aradia puts her hand over her mouth.

"That shuts you up too I guess- ew!"

Vriska had licked her hand. Aradia draws the hand back, wiping it on her shirt.

"You've got to shut up too." She tells Aradia.

The girl grins. "Make me." Vriska puffs out her cheeks.

She watches as Vriska's cheeks puff out, and she rolls her eyes.

"Oooh no," Vriska states, "I'm not playing your stupid game. And by the way, that is the biggest romantic cliché there is. So I'm going to avoid all of the dramatics and do what we both know is going to happen, which means I'm just going to kiss you now."

Aradia smiles as Vriska presses her lips to hers, and she ruins a perfectly good moment with a giggle. Vriska pulls back, looking down at Aradia, seeming a little insulted.

"What, am I just that bad?"

She laughs again. "No, you're just such a romantic really and it was totally unexpected."

"I am not a romantic, you little brat." She pouts.

Aradia just smiles as she closes her eyes, turning her head as she starts to drift off. "Vriska, I'm exhausted."

"Go to sleep then, you big baby."

She snuggles into Vriska's lap and she feels Vriska pull the blanket over her.

"Goodnight Vriska."

"Night Aradia." After a minute, just before Aradia drifts off, she feels a pair of warm lips on her forehead. Her mouth widens into a smirk.

"Such a romantic."

"Shut up!"

** Wow, you actually read the whole thing. Thanks, really! If you liked my story, then please tell me so. Also, kind criticism is also appreciated, as long as it's helpful and not just a 'your story sucks lol go die in a hole' because that's actually pretty boring to read and is a waste of a minute to me. Thank you! 3**


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